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King admitted he 'did not like the regime' at the 57-bed care home and claimed residents are 'drugged to keep you quiet'.

The court also heard how he had modified bullets into ‘Dum Dum’ rounds two weeks before last year’s December 28 shooting as ‘you might as well do it properly’.

Reliving Christmas Day just before the killing he said: 'We felt pretty good, I met her and we talked about the old times, we talked about the places we used to go on holiday mostly.

'She said it was the worst Christmas she had ever had, I said “I can't do anything about it”.

Ronald King (left) pictured with his wife Rita (right) - who he shot dead last December - at a friend's anniversary party

The shooting happened at De La Mer House in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex (stock image) on December 28 last year

'I was going to pick up the gun and finish us both, I had enough by then.

'We had this so called special dinner and we were the last to get served, by the time we got it, it was stone cold, even the plate was stone cold.’

When his barrister Patrick Upward QC asked him to relive the morning of the killing he said: 'She grabbed my hand, I sat down beside her then I kissed her on the forehead and stood up.

'That's when she said “Don't leave me, don't leave me”.

'I said “I can never leave you”, that's when I picked the gun up. I said we will always be together.

'I was shaking and pointed the gun at her and she smiled at me - that's when I fired the gun.'

The bullet blasted through her right eye and she is said to have died almost instantly.

King could only walk the short distance to the stand to give his evidence with the help of a security guard, who sat behind the pensioner's wheelchair as he gave evidence.

King told a court his wife Rita (left) had said 'don't leave me' before he shot her through her right eye, killing her almost instantly. Care home manager, Julie Curtis (right), gave evidence at the trial earlier this week

The guard had to hold King who was visibly shaking when he was pushed to the stand in a wheelchair.